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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 10 2005 at 7:25pm | IP Logged
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As many of you know, my parish is very tiny and very, very rural. In addition, we cover an entire WV county and, by default, most of a VA county as well because there isn't a Catholic parish there. Now our diocese has selected our parish to be a pilot parish for Whole Community Catechesis. I've been asked to be part of the team that goes for initial training...mostly because of my connection to our military base. My kids don't go to RE classes at church, because I teach them at home. 
I'm very interested in hearing of others' experiences with this type of catechesis. I've read some of Bill Huebsch's material (hope I spelled that right!) and it sounds intriguing.
With our small, small pool of volunteers and the difficult time we have getting said volunteers to drive in during the week (like, most won't...I'm 17 miles away from church, for example), we have a number of challenges that a large urban parish would not face. We also have minimal financial resources. Also, we have a large percentage of elderly parishioners. I'm trying to figure out how we could make WCC work in a parish like ours...
So, please share! I really appreciate hearing from anyone who's participated in WCC in any way.
Thanks!
__________________
Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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JennGM
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| Posted: April 10 2005 at 8:16pm | IP Logged
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Nancy,
I'm not familiar with this WCC, but in doing some quick searching you might want to be a bit wary. I'm sorry to be the one to dampen your enthusiasm. I found this review on Catholic World News. This article is from Paul Likoudis. Here's another one by Donna Steichem.
Twenty-Third Publications who publishes Bill Huebsch's works is a bit wishy-washy--I can't say all of their works sparkle with obedience to the Magisterium -- one of these reviews calls them "heterodox." And just reading some of Bill Huebsch's excerpts I found on the internet, I did see some of the rhetoric like "American Church" that you don't want to hear. We're Americans in the Roman Catholic Church; there's no "American Church."
Another red flag to me was in doing a search on Google, some of the dioceses that I recognize to be a bit liberal are the ones that have adopted this program. Makes me wonder...
It does sound exciting, and it could probably be a great tool, just use caution when going over the materials to make sure that all is thoroughly Catholic.
__________________
Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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guitarnan
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| Posted: April 10 2005 at 11:12pm | IP Logged
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Jenn,
I share your concerns; I did a lot of online research before reading Huebsch's book. I finished it today and didn't find any blatant errors or huge problems (whew). My parish has basically been ordered to try this approach by the diocese, so we're stuck for now. One of the reasons I have agreed to participate in all of this training and preparation (since in two years I won't be here) is to help the parish community remember the real goal of catechesis, to pass along our true faith to our children and to their children. (I grew up in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, home of Cardinal Mahony, BTW; I am the only practicing Catholic left in my generation of my family...hmmm...)
My early RE experience in Catholic school was the Baltimore Catechism approach. That changed to the "make a bookmark to show how much you love Jesus!" approach of the later 1970's. Christendom College's current president, Dr. Tim O'Donnell, was my first religion teacher in high school (thank you, God!); he taught us to read, analyze and love the Scriptures and to understand what the Magisterium truly means to Catholics. As you can see, I've been at both extremes of the RE spectrum as a student; I've also been an RE coordinator and teacher at overseas military bases. God was preparing me to homeschool for years...I just didn't know it!
I've asked others to share their stories with me so that I can bring the stories to my training experience and to my meetings with our parish staff. I don't want us to go toward a "celebrate liturgical seasons with food and festivity!" approach to RE...rather, I would like us to take the best of WCC and integrate it with a solid foundation in the faith for parishioners of all ages.
I know from personal experience that young people feel empowered when they know that they stand on the firmest foundation of all, the Magisterium, and that they don't have to compromise to meet the demands of secular society. When a teen learns how to read a papal encyclical and to look to Scripture and Tradition for guidance, that teen can stand against anything.
So, somehow I ended up on this RE team...I hope I'm discerning God's plan correctly, but I do feel called to pursue the training and help our parish in the best way I can. Perhaps it's not the way they thought I could help them...but, I need help myself to do the things I think I'm called to do.
Keep the articles, comments, stories and prayer coming, please! I need them all.
Thanks again...
__________________
Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Whole Community Catechesis
